The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

The instant Randy Ziegler saw the baseball sail beyond the infielders’ gloves and into the
outfield, he jumped the fence and ran toward home plate to celebrate a championship with the
Columbus Clippers.

The season-ticket holder had nearly crossed the plate in Cooper Stadium before the Clippers base
runner beat the throw and scored the winning run.

Ziegler hopped back over the fence and was relieved when he saw a security guard joining in the
wild celebration; he knew he wasn’t going to be arrested.

“If they hadn’t scored, or I had interfered with that play, I might have got in big trouble,”
said Ziegler, a Pickerington resident and Clippers season-ticket holder for 37 years. “That was my
most memorable game or Clipper moment for me, because I almost was part of the game. But over all
these years, our teams, the old stadium and this new beautiful one Downtown, have given all of us
something to remember.”

The Clippers franchise was bought by Franklin County for $25,000 in 1977 and is worth about $24
million, according to
Forbes magazine.

There have been tough times over the past four decades for what is now the Cleveland Indians’
top farm team, including years in which too many empty seats caused some to doubt its future.

Even after the $70 million Huntington Park opened in 2009, there were those who believed that a
fancy new ballpark Downtown would ruin part of the team’s history or price out the average fan.

But as the Clippers prepare to open their sixth season in their new home on Thursday, few can
dispute that the franchise has become a darling of its community and, perhaps, of all of
minor-league baseball.

“Huntington Park was inevitable to save baseball in this town,” said Michael F. Curtin, a
hard-core baseball fan and former editor and associate publisher of
The Dispatch who has written about baseball’s history in the city. “Bringing it Downtown
has been a tremendous success. It has totally re-energized minor-league baseball in Columbus.”

By the early 2000s, fans could see that the Clippers were losing steam in Cooper Stadium, their
former home west of Downtown and south of Franklinton along I-70.

“I’d often be out there ... on a perfect night for baseball, and I’d look at the seas of empty
seats,” Curtin said. “It was so sad.”

By the mid-2000s, the Clippers averaged — on paper — about 7,200 fans a game. In reality, fewer
than 2,000 showed up. Official attendance is based on tickets bought, not fans in the stands.

Since Huntington Park opened in 2009, the Clippers have topped the International League in
attendance every year. Last season, the Clippers’ average exceeded 9,200.

Part of the appeal is affordability. A family of four can park, walk up to the gate and buy
tickets for less than $30 total. By comparison, a family buying tickets at the gate for a Blue
Jackets or Crew game would spend more than $100, and taking in a Buckeyes football game starts at
$326 for four.

“It really is the only family-affordable sporting entertainment,” said general manager Ken
Schnacke. “I want the lowest concession prices. I still pinch myself almost every night that this
is real.”

Arena District bar owners have told Schnacke that they can count on a boost when the Clippers
play at home.

“A lot of people talk about the experience. I want you to care about the Clippers,” Schnacke
said.

Since 1979, the Clippers have won nine Governors’ Cups as champions of the International League.
Only one other team has won more: Rochester has 10, with one from 1939, and none since the ’9
0s.

Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks said the county touted the Clippers and their new home
to help lure a major convention for Columbus in 2017. The National Association of Counties will
bring several thousand visitors and their spending money.

“I brag a lot about what we’ve done,” Brooks said. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done. Not one
dollar of public tax has gone into this.”

The county doesn’t receive direct financial benefit from owning the team. But proceeds from the
operation of Huntington Park — ticket sales, concessions and souvenirs, to name a few sources — are
used to retire the $64 million debt on construction. And operations have gone so well in the first
five seasons that the county is paying down that debt quicker than anticipated, said county and
team officials, who hope to have it paid off by 2032 or sooner.

Beyond championships, civic pride and even the new ballpark, some would argue that the Clippers’
biggest contribution to the community over the past four decades has been the memories the
franchise has given to those who walked through its turnstiles.

And few people have more of those memories than the usher working in Section 8 at Huntington
Park, or the vendor selling beer on the main concourse along the first-base side.

Harold Winters, 93, an usher since 1985, and Jack Todd, 71, a beer vendor since 1977, blend the
Clippers’ past and present better than anyone.

The basement in Winters’ East Side home is filled with 900 signed baseballs that were handed to
him by nearly every Clippers player — including some of the game’s greatest players. Among the
first balls in Winters’ collection came from New York Yankees great Reggie Jackson, who was
standing alone in Cooper Stadium during a rain delay when the usher met the World Series hero.

Then came Cal Ripken Jr. and Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and a long list of Hall of Fame
players who played for the Clippers, attended spring training or came through Cooper Stadium.

“It was like a baseball dreamland for me almost every night at that old stadium,” Winters said. “
And now we have this new park, which is pretty darn nice and in a great spot.”

Todd acknowledges that he didn’t think he would like Huntington Park before it opened, but he
has fallen in love with it. When he started helping with alcohol sales, a beer was 40 cents. Now,
the price is more than $8.

Like Winters, Todd has countless memories of games and former players from Cooper Stadium, but
few stand out more than the night the Clippers charged only 25 cents for a cup of beer.

“I had one guy come up with a bread basket and told me to stack as many cups as I could in it,”
said Todd, who believes this will be his final season as a beer vendor. “People were throwing beer
and having beer fights, so we had to shut sales down in the fifth inning. That was a wild night.”&
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>

Although cheap beer is gone, 10-cent hot dogs live on.

Dime-a-Dog nights have become so much a part of the Clippers franchise that the county now owns
the name as a trademark.